tudent must often wish that this were so: it is only
superficially true. Much of Aristotle's nomenclature and his central
formulae have been retained, but they have been very variously
supplemented and interpreted to very different purposes--often to no
purpose at all.

The Cambridge mathematician's boast about his new theorem--"The best
of it all is that it can never by any possibility be made of the
slightest use to anybody for anything"--might be made with truth about
many of the later developments of Logic. We may say the same, indeed,
about the later developments of any subject that has been a playground
for generation after generation of acute intellects, happy in
their own disinterested exercise. Educational subjects--subjects
appropriated for the general schooling of young minds--are
particularly apt to be developed out of the lines of their original
intention. So many influences conspire to pervert the original aim.
The convenience of the teacher, the convenience of the learner,
the love of novelty, the love of symmetry, the love of subtlety;
easy-going indolence on the one hand and intellectual restlessness
on the other--all these motives act from within on traditional
matter without regard to any external purpose whatever. Thus in
Logic difficulties have been glossed over and simplified for the dull
understanding, while acute minds have revelled in variations and new
and ingenious manipulations of the old formulae, and in multiplication
and more exact and symmetrical definition of the old distinctions.

To trace the evolution of the forms and theories of Logic under these
various influences during its periods of active development is a task
more easily conceived than executed, and one far above the ambition of
an introductory treatise. But it is well that even he who writes for
beginners should recognise that the forms now commonly used have been
evolved out of a simpler tradition. Without entering into the details
of the process, it is possible to indicate its main stages, and thus
furnish a clue out of the modern labyrinthine confusion of purposes.

How did the Aristotelian Logic originate? Its central feature is the
syllogistic forms. In what circumstances did Aristotle invent these?
For what purpose? What use did he contemplate for them? In rightly
understanding this, we shall understand the original scope or province
of Logic, and thus be in a position to understand more clearly how it
has been modifi